Belief cannot be stopped

You might remember a movie back in 2007 with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman called, “The Bucket List.”

Anybody remember that?

The story was about two guys with terminal cancer and they talked about the things they wanted to do before they died.

Hence the title, “The Bucket List.”

A Bucket list is a list of things that you want to do before you kick the bucket.

The movie is about those two guys escaping the cancer ward and getting after it.

So, two questions for you

Number 1, do you have a bucket list?

Number 2, do you think you’ll ever do the list?

Me, my two fake hips and my bad back would love to through hike the Appalachian Trail.

I want to go to Hudson Bay in October one year to watch the Polar Bears migrate.

I want to ride the Rocky Moutaineer across the Canadian Rockies and take an Alaskan Cruise.

I want to take the American Cruise lines up the East Coast from Florida all the way to Prince Edward Island.

I want to take a paddle-wheeler up the Mississippi.

I want to stay in a cabin in Yellowstone where there are more animals than people.

Do I believe I’ll ever do those things?

Probably not - but

If I was to pick just one of them and turn away from everything else

If I picked just one and put my mind to making it happen, I believe it would happen.

You know why?

Because Belief cannot be stopped.

Turn with me if you will to Matthew 25:31-46.

We have Bibles in the pew racks if you’d like to follow along and if you don’t own a Bible, we’d be pleased if you took one of ours and made it your own.

Everyone should have a copy of God’s word in their home.

With your Bibles open, please follow along as we hear now the Word of the Lord from Matthew 25:31-46

Matthew 25:31–46 ESV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Please join me in prayer:

Dear Father, You called a portion of Your Bride to this place this evening.

Father, Help us through the power of Your Holy Spirit to have our hearts and minds opened

That we might see you and follow you even more closely.

We love what you are doing with us and we give you praise.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

So what has the Lord done with His churches?

By the Lord’s providence, He made eight pastors into a fellowship.

We share our trials and tribulations, our successes and failures

And we share the work.

I would have, and I believe each Pastor would agree, I would have no problem recommending someone to go to any one of our churches.

In fact, we encourage folks who are searching to find the church where they sense God planting them

And we rejoice when He does.

Because of that focus on Jesus rather than competition

We realize churches have seasons just like everything else - sometimes your church will be the “exciting” church

Sometimes ours will be the “exciting” church.

Regardless, we Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

That attitude gives us the freedom to cooperate for the kingdom.

So what has the Lord done with His churches here in Jones County?

Here is a list - it’s not exhaustive - but at times it’s been exhausting.

But here you go.

We bagged groceries a long time ago at Ingles for Hurricane Relief.

If your or your child ever uses the restroom at the Inclusive Playground at the rec center, we were behind that being built.

Many of our churches are involved with the Department of Family and Children’s services

Providing families meal boxes and gifts during the holidays.

Providing clothing and supplies for kids coming into care - New City Eastside has a crazy big clothing closet that they and others use.

Providing banquets to celebrate the families and give them a night out.

Many of us do Operation Christmas Child boxes for Samaritan’s Purse to distribute overseas.

I want us to consider something - we accumulate over 1,000 shoeboxes at Christmas time - in fact, they were due to Greenwood for processing today.

Lowballing their impact, if one child is saved for ever 10 shoeboxes delivered, that means because of what the Lord moved us to do, 100 children will enter eternity with Jesus.

Over 200 children each week would be hungry from Friday, when they get their last best meal from school until Monday when they get their first breakfast at school if the churches of Jones County didn’t do something.

But we do - FBC-Gray and Immanuel are where the food is housed and the distribution organized.

But it’s not just us - we have volunteers from churches and organizations all over Jones County.

We’ve had donations - which every penny given goes to food and nothing else - we’ve had donations from all sorts of individuals and businesses.

And here’s what I’d like to do right now

If you have helped with the Jesus’ Hands program here or at Immanuel, if you’ve given money, if you have shopped for food or if you have donated food, if you’ve saved up plastic grocery bags, if you’ve helped pack, if you’ve helped deliver to the schools, if you are someone at the school that makes sure the food gets where it’s supposed to go, would you please stand for a moment?

Look, this is going to take too long - let me just list stuff.

Some of our churches do backpacks to distribute at Christmas and at the new school year.

14 community churches participated in the Not So Scary Grayberry Spectacular where the Gideons distributed 850 Bibles and we know of at least 2,000 tracts were distributed along with countless invitations to local churches to the 3,700 people who came.

We have a cadre of volunteers that participate in JC Reading where they go into the schools to help elementary students learn to read.

And each of our 8 churches has adopted one of our Jones County Schools

We feed them for about anything you can think of

We give them birthday gifts, we volunteer on their campuses - we do everything we can to help our educators know they are loved and appreciated.

Some of our churches participate in Builders for Christ and the FCA’s Fields of Faith.

We share men’s conferences and women’s conferences and marriage conferences, GriefShare, and a Save our Students conference.

One church makes sure every Law Enforcement person gets a turkey for the holidays.

We support SonRise ministries and their food bank and other ministries they have.

We do worship services and provide love and help to nursing home residents.

We have a Drive through Nativity, and a Road to Hope.

And the list goes on.

Now, the question could be asked

Aren’t those just do-gooder things that anyone could do?

And of course you have to answer, yes, anyone could do them or things like them.

But the next question has to be, if anyone else was doing them, would they have the same effect?

And the answer to that is no, they wouldn’t

Because the motives would not be the same.

Very quickly, let’s look at the scripture.

If you go back to Matthew chapter 23, Jesus is wearing the Pharisees out.

Now in hindsight, we see them as the bad guys

But if we had been living then, they would have been the good guys.

Wise men with flowing robes and beards telling us all of the good things to do so we would be acceptable to God.

Only, they missed the point

They taught people to do good things so they would be acceptable to God.

But God says that can’t happen.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Yeah, good things without Jesus are just good things that have no power.

In fact, if you were asked “If you died today, where would you spend eternity?”

And your answer is, “Heaven.”

And then you are asked, “why should God allow you into heaven?”

If you start naming all of the good things you have done - no, just no.

“Why should God allow you into heaven?”

Because Jesus died and was raised from the dead so I could be forgiven of my sins.

I’ve turned from my former life and I’m following Jesus.

He will lead me home.

You do remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees, the do-gooders of their day, right?

Matthew 23:33 ESV

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

Not a ringing endorsement of doing good to prove we are good.

Matthew 24 talks about the second coming of Jesus.

Jesus talks about wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famine

And He said Matthew 24:8

Matthew 24:8 ESV

All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

He tells us to be on the look out and be ready.

In Matthew 24, Jesus tells the parable of the 10 virgins - 5 prepared for the groom to come and 5 did not.

The 5 that prepared were welcomed in

The 5 that did not, were welcomed to stay outside never to come in.

Jesus then tells the parable of the talents.

One man was given 5 talents by the master to take care of while the master was away.

When the master returned, he had made 5 talents and the master praised him.

He gave another man 2 talents and he made 2 talents and the master praised him.

Finally he gave another man 1 talent, and he hid it in the dirt so when the master came back, he gave him his talent back.

The master called him wicked and lazy

And Matthew 25:30 says

Matthew 25:30 ESV

And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

So now we have a bit of conundrum, don’t we?

Jesus says we don’t get into heaven by our good words - see the Pharisees for the example.

But then He turns around and says we don’t get into heaven without good works - is He contradicting Himself?

No - the difference is the motivation.

The Pharisees are motivated to prove they can be good enough for God.

But did you notice in our passage, “the righteous” as Jesus called them didn’t even know they had done a good thing.

Matthew 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and…” and thirsty and all of those things.

And Jesus answered with one of the sweetest statements I’ve ever heard, Matthew 25:40

Matthew 25:40 ESV

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Brothers and sisters, I’m not totally naive.

I know there are people who are involved in the ministries of our church who are doing their best to work their way into heaven.

I pray the Holy Spirit opens their eyes before its too late.

But many, many, many are not.

They do it because the Holy Spirit of God moves our hearts to compassion and love and that causes us to do things we might not ordinarily do.

We are, in fact, acting like Jesus.

But aren’t these things still just good things to do?

Shouldn’t we be making these folks listen to a gospel presentation?

Brothers and sisters, we are.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

2 Corinthians 2:15–16 ESV

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

Everything thing we do when we do it because we are acting like Jesus, it smells like Jesus.

Every food bag, every back pack, every page we turn helping a child read blows a little bit of the smell of Jesus in their face.

We can’t quantify the impact our efforts are having

But I can promise you this because Jesus said it and not me, John 13:35

John 13:35 ESV

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

They see us working together

Not just our churches alone

But churches working with churches

And they can smell Jesus in that.

And eventually, some of them will see Jesus.

Now, I saved one thing until last.

Look at verse 40 again, Matthew 25:40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

You see that phrase, the least of these…

There isn’t much leaster - if that can be a word - than a child at Jones County Head Start that needs food.

And at Bradley Baptist Church, on Friday, February 13, 2026, there will be a gathering of leasters.

Let me explain before you get offended.

Our society has decided who is least and who is most.

Did you know that 92% of children who receive a pre-natal diagnosis of Down Syndrome are aborted?

In Iceland and Denmark, the number is 100%.

Nothing says you are least like an abortion.

But on February 13, Bradley will host the “Night to Shine” where children and adults

With Downs and every other kid of disability will be made much of.

Some of them may never reach a moral state where they can know Jesus as their savior

They will receive special grace and be welcomed home by Jesus.

But their moms and dads can know Jesus - and can smell Jesus all over the house.

Due to a little glitch, their system allowed more people to register than they were prepared for.

They need buddies to sign up - basically you will be a personal chaperon for one that society calls the least of these

In order for you to help them become the most - if even for just a day.

I’ve done it before - my person was a challenge because she kept wanting to escape with her friends

But all in all, she and I had a great night.

I promise if you sign up you will be uncomfortable for a few minutes - but that will go away

And you will see Jesus.

One last thought - there are a thousand reasons why we should temper our voices in the community.

Ask any non-Christian or nominal Christian - there are a thousand reasons.

There is only one that says we should be louder and bolder and that’s because

Belief cannot be stopped.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:18

Matthew 16:18 ESV

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

We’ve played defense for a very long time.

It sounds to me like we are starting to move to the offense.

When we do, watch what happens in our county.

We’ll smell Jesus everywhere.

Oh we are going to get a lot of resistance, but - Jesus said - we will prevail.

We’re going to pray and then we’ll sing.

If you want to talk to someone about Jesus, they’ll be a pastor standing in the aisle you can talk to.

Find yours or talk to anybody, we’ll all lead you to the same place.

And for everyone here, I ask you to ask the Lord where He wants us to serve next.

We don’t have to pray about what to do, He just told us in what we read.

It’s where and when and how and with who.

I’d encourage you to come to the altar and pray with your brothers and sisters.

We are one Bride,

Let us respond as one Bride to Jesus.

Let us pray: